Cooking can be annoying. It takes forever and in the end it looks like shared kitchens at the worst of times?! These ten simple tricks will save you time and energy.
One moment your head is at work, the next you’re off to daycare – and you actually wanted to do some sport too. Life can be hectic and sometimes quite stressful. This makes it all the more important to eat properly. This brings energy and helps to overcome daily challenges. But it just doesn’t cook itself and the clock ticks and ticks and ticks. Cooking doesn’t have to be stressful and become another energy drain. These ten tricks make work in the kitchen easier.
10 tricks for more relaxed cooking
1. Mise en place
Open the fridge, close the fridge, rummage through the drawers, commute to the pantry and back – cooking can quickly become hectic, especially when all the ingredients and accessories you need have to be dug out one by one. But there are alternatives. So before you get started: get an overview and provide everything you need. What needs to be thawed is thawed, what needs to be cleaned and peeled is cleaned and peeled before the actual cooking begins. This brings structure to the processes.
2. Multitask
The pasta is no longer al dente, but the vegetables are still raw? You can’t function in the kitchen without multitasking. But the same applies here: think through the processes before you start, think about what needs to be done first, what needs to be done last and which activities can be tackled in parallel. While the water is boiling, vegetables are chopped and when everything is simmering, you can start cleaning up.
3. Order is a must
Anyone who has ever taken a look into a professional kitchen knows that every utensil has its proper place. There’s a good reason for this – the chefs know blindly where to find something. This means they can work quickly and efficiently and don’t have to waste extra energy searching. It also helps to immediately put away any supplies that are no longer needed. This ensures clarity.
4. The right utensils
It is obvious that the right equipment can make working in the kitchen much easier. The mixer creates in seconds what has to be laboriously chopped by hand. And if the knife is blunt, cutting can be more than tedious.
5. Save energy
You know the problem. Everything is ready, but the oven is not yet at the desired temperature. So you wait until the light goes out. This is often not even necessary. Vegetables, for example, can be put in beforehand. This not only saves time, it also uses less energy.
6. Pre-boil water
It can take a while for water to finally boil. If you have little time or are simply impatient, you can help yourself with a simple trick. The water can be easily boiled in a kettle. This speeds up the process immensely.
7. Rethink
Sometimes it’s hair-tearing. The recipe is ready, as are the ingredients – but yikes, there’s an egg missing. Instead of panicking and rushing to the nearest supermarket to buy the missing ingredient, many things can easily be replaced. That saves your nerves. Many ingredients such as flour, eggs and milk can be replaced with other foods. In any case, recipes are just suggestions, you should keep that in mind and be brave enough to change them if necessary.
8. Less dishes is more
Sure, you can prepare each ingredient in a separate pot. This is often done when vegetables have different cooking times. But that is not necessary. Here too, the correct order is the be-all and end-all. First the vegetables that need to be cooked for a long time, last are the varieties that only need to be put in the pot for a quick visit.
9. The chaos afterwards
For many people, the worst thing about cooking is the mess afterwards. The kitchen is full of used pots and cutting boards, and in the worst case there is kitchen waste everywhere. Cleanup work that you don’t really want to worry about after eating on a full stomach. You don’t have to do that if you integrate tidying and cleaning activities directly into the processes. For example, kitchen waste can be collected in a bowl, saving you multiple trips to the trash can. Many utensils can be cleaned and put away again immediately after the work step, which also creates space. In short: Take advantage of idle time, for example while you wait for the food to be cooked.
10. Before eating
Washing the dishes after eating can be a tiresome task. Once the leftover food has dried, patience is required. Therefore, even if it sounds old-fashioned, fill the pots and pans with water and let them soak right before eating. Even better: give it a rough clean with a cloth. This happens in no time.
Fillet knife test: Click here for the filleting knife comparison.
Pot set test: Click here for the pot set comparison.
Canning machine test: Click here for the preserving machine comparison.